S300V SA-12 Giant

RUSSIAN S-300V AND AMERICAN PATRIOT: WHO LEADS THE WAY?

In modern
warfare, tactical and theater ballistic missiles are widely relied upon to destroy key
installations of an enemy land force.

As the ballistic
missiles are noted for high speed, low radar signature and low vulnerability, the problem
of their engagement is extremely complex and hard to solve. All of the developed ADM
systems, including the American Patriot developed by Raytheon, were originally conceived
as anti-aircraft missile systems and, therefore, are not really capable of countering
tactical and theater missiles. Until the end of the 1970s, the NATO member-states had not
paid much attention to the protection of their territories and installations against
possible strikes by tactical and theater ballistic missiles. The interest in this problem
arose sharply by the mid-1980s because missile weapon systems appeared in third-world
countries.

While bearing in mind that development of air defense systems capable of performing
tactical anti-missile defense missions would require considerable material investments and
take much time to be completed, the USA decided to upgrade the Patriot ADM system
step-by-step to make it capable of countering missiles and concurrently launch the
research, design and development work to solve the problem in its entirety.

The upgraded version of the Patriot ADM
system, designated RAS-2, was employed during the Persian Gulf war. Analysis shows that
its anti-missile capabilities are very limited and it cannot ensure effective anti-missile
defense of an area. In most cases it hit the target missile's body but did not destroy its
warhead. The Patriot's drawbacks cannot be eliminated by introducing partial upgrades into
certain ground-based system elements.

Today, the only ADM system in the world that
can effectively counter tactical and theater ballistic missiles is the Russian-made
S-300V, manufactured by Antey.

Unlike the ADM systems in service with the
Western armies, the S-300V system was originally conceived as a weapon system destined to
counter tactical and theater ballistic missiles, as well as other high-speed,
low-signature, highly maneuverable and low-vulnerable targets. The unique capabilities of
the S-300V ADM system are, in many respects, attributable to the missiles that had been
purposely developed for this system and that are unrivaled in domestic and international
rocket-building.

The S-300V ADM system incorporates two
missiles: the 9M83 missile (NATO designation Gladiator) and 9M82 missile (Giant). Both
missiles and their launchers have been designed by the Novator Design Bureau
(Yekaterinburg) that has been involved in the development of rockets and missiles for over
40 years. The Bureau has developed such widely known air defense missiles as the 3M8 for
the Krug ADM system and the 9M38 for the Buk ADM system. The Novator Design Bureau carries
on development work in close collaboration with the Kalinin Machine-building Plant, which
normally starts to tool up for the new product before the design work is completed and
then puts it into series production. The continued collaboration between designers and
manufacturers yields perceptible results. Products manufactured by the Kalinin Plant are
noted for their high quality and reliability.

The Novator Design Bureau develops not only AD missiles of various classes. It is also
involved in the development of missiles of other classes for the Navy and Air Force.
Specialization of the Design Bureau in the development of various classes of missiles
makes it possible to incorporate the advanced technical solutions found and proved during
the development of earlier classes, thus improving the capabilities of the new
models.

The 9M83 missile is designed to counter
weapons employed to deliver dense attacks. It is highly effective against any type of
existing and prospective aircraft at ranges of up to 75 km, against SRAM-type
aero-ballistic missiles, tactical ballistic missiles of the Lance type at ranges of up to
40 km, and against nap-of-the-earth cruise missiles. And neither an anti-missile evasive
maneuver performed by the target nor electronic countermeasures can prevent the 9M83 AD
missile from performing its mission.

The 9M82 missile is the most powerful weapon,
featuring much higher speed characteristics and capable of defeating all of the
above-mentioned targets. However, it is designed primarily for the engagement of theater
missiles at ranges of up to 35 to
40 km and flying at a speed of up to 3,000 m/s, as well as other high-speed small targets,
high-flying (up to 30 km) targets, jammers, and AWACS and HAWKEYE early warning aircraft
at ranges of up to 100 km.

The high operational capabilities have been
built into these missiles due to the wide application of the elements of artificial
intelligence and other technical advances uncommon for missiles of this class.

The two-stage configuration of the missiles
has made it possible to take full advantage of their propulsion plants and obtain high
flight and performance characteristics. It can also rapidly alter their flight and
performance characteristics to suit the specifics of their combat employment through the
newly introduced sustainer firing adjustable delay system and created two missiles
featuring different flight and performance characteristics on the basis of unified
sustainer stage.

As to the technical solutions that ensure the
high efficiency of the missiles against battlefield and theater missiles and other
threats, particular emphasis should be placed on their armament which can be adapted to
the type of threat and requirements of combat employment. This armament includes:

The high warhead detonation instant
evaluation accuracy is attained from the ample data about the point of impact with the
target, including the missile and target speed, relative orientation of their axes, miss
vector, impact point, impact point altitude, and target type.

Depending on the mission to be accomplished
and jamming conditions, the fuse chooses the operating mode optimal for the given
situation to ensure the highest target engagement efficiency.

The missiles are very simple in design and
easy to use, because they have been designed in accordance with the "missile -
cartridge" principle. The missiles require no maintenance for their entire service
life.

The high performance characteristics of the
missiles are also attributable to their launchers. Mounted on a tracked chassis, they
feature high cross-country capacity and can move within troop battle formations. The
launcher can be deployed and made operational within only five minutes of arriving at a
launch site. The launcher can stop at any place and fire missiles from an unprepared
launch site. All operations to prepare missile launches and launch the missiles are
automated and, therefore, do not require highly skilled personnel to do the job.
Preparation of a missile for firing, where its onboard equipment is checked for
serviceability and correct functioning, is performed by the launcher within 15
seconds.

To prevent the enemy from detecting launch
sites in modern warfare, it is vital to be capable of promptly moving to new positions. As
our launchers can do it swiftly, their survivability is high.

In terms of anti-battlefield and anti-theater
missile capability, the Russian S-300V is unrivaled. Under severe competition on the arms
market, it is very difficult for our traditional rival, the USA, trying to win contracts
for the Patriot ADM system, to admit this fact. A vivid example of this is the disgraceful
story of the ad booklet published by Raytheon company and distributed in Abu Dhabi at the
IDEX 97 international exhibition of arms and military equipment. The booklet
intentionally perverted the facts regarding the S-300V ADM system's combat characteristics
and price. However, foreign experts were compelled to admit in the Jane's magazine
published in England that the S-300V system possesses qualities which no other ADM system
in the West will feature until the end of the current decade. The system is a triumph of
the development of Soviet tactical anti-missile defense. Capable of intercepting tactical
ballistic missiles, it is unrivaled, for there is no other ADM system in the world that
can do it.

But more meaningful than the words is that
the Americans have recognized the superiority of the S-300V ADM system by buying this
system to study it.

Today, the USA is making a strenuous effort
to develop the RAS-3 version of the Patriot ADM system and the THAAD system in order to
eliminate the lag in the development of tactical anti-missile defense systems, but the USA
will have to solve the problems that were solved by Russian specialists long ago.